House prices fall another 1.3%

In the latest troubling report about the UK property market, Halifax has stated that house prices fell 1.3 per cent last month.

Britain's biggest mortgage lender revised its property forecast, saying it now expects a "mid-single digit" drop in prices over 2008 - dramatically worse than what many had predicted.

Halifax blamed the credit crunch and the runaway inflation in house prices over the past year for the ongoing downturn.

A similar assessment was given just two days previously by the Nationwide building society, which warned that British house prices have now begun falling year-on-year for the first time since 1996.

And just yesterday, David Blanchflower, one of the nine key members of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee, said UK property could depreciate by as much as 33 per cent.

The barrage of gloomy forecasts has prompted most analysts to caution first-time buyers against getting onto the property ladder due to fears over negative equity.

News posted on 2nd May, 2008